SCOTTISH TABLET

I promised the Sunday Post earlier this week that I would try a Scottish recipe before I am back there on Friday, so this is it. It is an easy one, I know, and the picture is rather simple, but in all fairness we did not have much time...

Tablet is absolutely scrumptious and it is difficult to stop eating it - but I warn you, it is the kind of food that lasts one minute in your mouth and one year in your hips!

The recipe is from the Guardian (Jan 2014). You need:
- 125 g butter
- 350 gr condensed milk
- a pinch of salt
- 250 ml whole milk (we only had semi-skimmed milk so we used 225 ml milk and 25 ml of single cream)
- 1Kg caster sugar (yes, really)
- half a tsp of vanilla essence.

Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sugar, milk and salt and heat it all (stirring now and then) until the sugar has dissolved. This takes around 20 minutes. Then add the condensed milk and let it simmer (stirring also from time to time) for another 20 minutes (if you have a food thermometer this should reach 115 degrees).  Take it off the heat, add the vanilla essence and beat with an electric whisker ( 2-3- minutes) or by hand (much better so that you start burning all those calories!) for 5-6 minutes. It should get the consistency of thick cream. Pour it into a shallow tin previously greased with butter. Let it cool down in the fridge for 30 minutes and cut it into squares when it has cooled down.

It is tricky to get the children to help with this as the mixture gets very hot. In any case, do not let them help you when you beat the mixture at the end as, though it looks like brown cream, it is boiling sugar (soft ball point) so they can burn themselves very easily.







CRACKLED CHOCOLATE BISCUITS

We made these yesterday morning to share them with a large group of people. They work very well for a crowd, as you can get many biscuits (30-35) with the quantities below, and are easy to make. We have tried, altered and combined various recipes over the last three years.

You need:
- 225 g dark chocolate
- 225 g butter (room temperature)
- 300 gr light brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 360 g self raising flour
- a teaspoon of being powder
- a pinch of salt
- 6 table spoons of strong decaffeinated coffee
- 150 gr icing sugar

Beat together the eggs and light brown sugar (with a hand mixer) for a couple of minutes. Then add the eggs, butter and coffee and mix well (one minute). Finally mix the salt, baking power and flour - sift them together and fold them into the mixture with a spoon. Cover the bowl with cling film and let it rest overnight in the fridge.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Make little balls (walnut size) with the mixture and roll them in icing sugar. We normally roll them twice in the icing sugar so that you get a proper crackled effect. Put the balls on a lined baking tray (don't be tempted to flatten them) and bake for 15 minutes. Be very careful with the timing as they go from soft to dry in no time at all. Let the cool down in a cooling rack.

These are a bit like making chocolate meatballs so they are fun for the children to make. Also, the mixture is rather dense, so even if the children help you to prepare these you should not end up with a chocolate mess.




If you liked this you may also like our Peanut Butter Cookies:



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